More Abortion, More Crime
In contrast to the claims set forth in the best-selling "Freakonomics," John Lott has found that less restrictive abortion laws promote crime. Here's the key quote from the CNS story:
Lott's study argues that after the high court ruled that states must allow abortion, more permissive sexual behavior and less contraception produced three things: an increase in out-of-wedlock births, a reduction in the number of children placed for adoptions, and fewer married parents.
Taken together, these are recipes for a more crime-ridden society, as this piece in City Journal illustrates, as it links the violence in Newark to the epidemic of fatherlessness there.
Lott's study argues that after the high court ruled that states must allow abortion, more permissive sexual behavior and less contraception produced three things: an increase in out-of-wedlock births, a reduction in the number of children placed for adoptions, and fewer married parents.
Taken together, these are recipes for a more crime-ridden society, as this piece in City Journal illustrates, as it links the violence in Newark to the epidemic of fatherlessness there.
posted by LadybugUSA at 8:19 AM
2 Comments:
The causal links suggested in this kind of analysis are just too tenuous to place any confidence in. The author seems to suggest that the Supreme Court's decision was a causal factor in more permissive sexual behavior. Yet the term "Sexual Revolution" antedated the Supreme Court decision by at least ten years, and it was the availability of the Pill that triggered the Sexual Revolution. Throw in the general cultural revolution of the Sixties and the increase in mobility and you get a better explanation for the increase in sexual permissiveness than the claim that nine old men in black robes unleashed a mad copulatory frenzy.
Yes, things have changed. The causes of such changes are far too varied to try to pin on any single factor.
I agree with Chepe. I don't really see the court's decision as a cause of the social changes listed. Certainly more readily available abortions have had an affect on social behavior. But I can't see pointing to that as the cause.
Post a Comment
<< Home